Adolf
Hitler's only boyhood friend, August Kubizek, recalled Hitler as a shy,
reticent young man, yet he was able to burst into hysterical fits of
anger towards those who disagreed with him. The two became inseparable
during these early years and Kubizek turned out to be a patient
listener.

Kubizek, then sixteen, first met Adolf Hitler, fifteen, late in 1904
when both were competing for standing room at the opera. He was a good audience for Hitler, who often rambled for hours about his
hopes and dreams. Sometimes Hitler even gave speeches complete with wild
hand gestures to his audience of one. Hitler would only tolerate
approval from his friend and could not stand to be corrected, a
personality trait he had shown in high school and as a younger boy as
well.

Kubizek later recalled his friend this way:

"There
he stood, this pallid, skinny youth, with the first dark brown showing
on his upper lip, in his shabby pepper-and-salt suit, threadbare at the
elbows and collar, with his eyes glued to some architectural detail,
analyzing the style, criticizing or praising the work, disapproving of
the material - all this with such thoughtfulness and such expert
knowledge as though he were the builder and would have to pay for every
shortcoming out of his own pocket."

Then
one day in 1905 the pair went to see a performance of Wagner's Rienzi
at the Linz Memorial Theater. This became a decisive event for the
teenaged Hitler, as he was to refer to it after he came to power. In
Kubizek's biography of Hitler The Young Hitler I Knew, 1953, he
recalls how it had a terrifying impact upon Hitler, who left the theater
in a state of trance:

"Adolf
stood in front of me; and now he gripped both my hands and held them
tight. He had never made such a gesture before. I felt from the grasp of
his hands how deeply moved he was. His eyes were feverish with
excitement .. Never before and never again have I heard Adolf Hitler
speak as he did in that hour, as we stood there alone under the stars,
as though we were the only creatures in the world. He now spoke of a
mission that he was one day to receive from our people, in order to
guide them out of slavery, to the heights of freedom .."

Thirty
years later, the boyhood friends would meet again in Bayreuth, and
Kubizek told Adolf Hitler what he remembered of that night, assuming
that the enormous multitude of impressions and events which had filled
these past decades would have pushed into the background the experience
of a seventeen year old youth.

But after a few words Kubizek sensed that Hitler vividly recalled that
hour and had retained all its details in his memory. Hitler's words were
unforgettable for August Kubizek: